The Cliche of Yuki Nagato
by ShadowWeasel
Summary: I for one could not think of a better title to describe probably the cheesiest thing that has ever happened to me. It was probably the work of Haruhi, but I choose to believe that what I felt was sincere. My name is Kyon, for those of you who are wondering. And the romantic interest in this particular story is none other than Yuki Nagato.


It was another one of those weird days again. Not weird as in weird, mind you, but rather… weird as in not weird. Ugh; even I get confused by that sometimes. But no, it was pretty standard fare for today's meeting of the SOS Brigade. Haruhi was barking orders in that always-right-about-everything way she does. Mikuru was serving tea in that lovely maid's outfit. And Koizumi was simply agreeing with everything with that smile he has.

Yep; this was just another day for the SOS Brigade.

But of course, whenever I get done establishing the normalness of the day's events, I can always count on Haruhi to change that.

"I'm bored!"

Speak of the devil.

Jumping to her feet, the perky, brunette, captain of our club stood behind her desk with defiance in her stance. "We haven't had a single visitor in weeks!" she yelled.

Make that months.

"I say we go out and investigate something," she suggested, moreover declared.

While Mikuru and Koizumi could respectively smile or cower in response, I couldn't help but add my input. "Investigate what, exactly?" I asked.

Our leader cast me a glare and huffed, "Duh, Kyon! Investigate the town for strange occurrences! Aliens, time-travelers, who knows; anything would be more fun that lazing around here for another hour."

"Sounds good to me," Koizumi chimed in without a second thought.

"Uh… um, do I have a choice?" Mikuru almost whispered nervously.

Despite their undying loyalty, I for one didn't want to lurk around town all afternoon like some creep. I would much rather continue sitting here in the club-room, playing cards and drinking tea. Luckily, I received a stroke of genius.

"Well, what if someone comes looking for the SOS Brigade?" I said with a smirk. "If we're out on patrol, there'll be no one here to accept their request or mission or whatever."

Like I said: a stroke of genius.

"Good thinking, Kyon," Haruhi replied with a smile. Suddenly, she jabbed her finger at me. "You and Yuki can stay behind and watch for visitors!"

Strike that; now it was more like just a stroke.

Wait a minute; did she say me and Yuki? It didn't take me long to locate the quiet, purple-haired girl in the corner, who I'd even forgotten was there. Her golden-brown eyes didn't look away from her book even at the mention of her name.

My first instinct was to protest, but as I turned to voice my complaints to Haruhi, I found she had already dashed off. And taken the other two with her, to boot.

I sighed and leaned back into my chair. Sometimes being in this club seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. What was I going to do for the next, what, three hours? Knowing Haruhi, she would take that long or longer to scour the city for oddities before coming back to lock the room up for the night.

Reentering the state of boredom I knew all too well, my eyes shifted back to Yuki.

Her full name was Yuki Nagato. She was a sort of… what did she call it? Alien-interface or something like that. Basically, she was a robot by my standards. Albeit a robot that was easy on the eyes, but a robot nonetheless. She always sat in the corner of the room, her nose buried in a different book almost every day. I'm not sure how she reads them that fast, or if she retains the information from each book, but all I know is that she reads almost all the time.

"You are staring."

"Huh?" I mumbled, coming out of my thoughts. What? Why was she looking at me all of a sudden?

"You are staring," she repeated, her monotone unchanging even the second time.

Great, now I'm a pervert. "Ah, sorry," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "Guess I got lost in my thoughts."

For an awkward second, Yuki just stared at me, her face expressionless as the time passed. Then she returned to her book, as though nothing had occurred.

I breathed a sigh of relief. But now it felt weird. You know how when someone says something, and then the conversation just kind of drifts off and you feel like you have to keep it up? That's how I felt.

"What are you reading?" I asked.

There was another pause before she lifted the book from the resting position on her legs and into the air for me to see. I strained to read the print at the top of the page. Romeo and Juliet, I managed to make out, by William Shakespeare.

"Are you enjoying it?" I wondered aloud, curious.

She nodded emotionlessly. I nodded back and stared off and away from her. The least she could do was respond, you know? Internally, I sighed.

"I don't understand."

My ears perked up. Another response from Nagato? This had to be the most talkative she had ever been. But more to the point, what did she, a super-intelligent alien life-form, not understand?

"What?" I replied, turning to face her.

"The concept that is being repeatedly mentioned throughout the story," she answered statically. "The author continually references the word love."

Whoa, wait, what now? This was already getting weird. Would I have to explain the idea of love to Yuki?

"Well," I started hesitantly, hoping she was just going through a technical glitch and would be over it soon. "What don't you get?"

Out of the blue, she stood from her chair and walked towards me. I watched her stop halfway to the table and point to a line in the book. Carefully, I stood as well, coming closer to read it.

I looked over her shoulder, trying my best to stay calm, despite being so close to her body. She pointed a slender, soft finger along the page and queried, "I fail to understand in what context the characters are using the word love."

With a silent gulp, I reached my arm around her figure in order to gesture to the book. "Um… what this says is that the two characters love each other."

The girl blinked, obviously not fully grasping the concept. "Love," she stated. "Is it being used as a verb in this instance?"

I found myself unable to answer, my throat dry from the anticipation and anxiousness of it all. Yuki turned around to face me, and we found our noses not even an inch away from each other. She stared deeply into my soul with her caramel orbs full of wonder. Heart racing, my mind ran rampant with thoughts of what might happen next.

Nagato blinked again, her innocent face unfazed. "To feel a deep romantic or sexual attraction," she quoted.

The two words sent images barreling through my mind. Was I attracted to Yuki? If so, was it romantic, sexual, or… both?

Her eyes didn't leave mine as she voiced her second thought. "One last question," she announced. "The characters often interact through an action known as kissing. If you could define…"

That was it. I didn't care whether the attraction was romantic or sexual, I didn't care that we were in the club-room, and I certainly didn't care that the whole thing was so terribly cliché it hurt.

With a sudden urge that swept through my body, I quickly grabbed the girl by the waist in one hand, and I held the back of her head with the other. Yuki gasped; something I had never heard her do before. As I examined her face for a brief moment, I saw a look of pure emotion that I had never seen before, not even from Haruhi. It was a mixture of excitement, anxiousness, and fear.

I pushed my doubts aside and leaned forward. My lips met hers in an explosion of energy. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I swore I felt her tongue enter my mouth as I took the kiss deeper. The excitement overwhelmed my hands, and I felt them trembling as I ran my fingers through her soft, violet hair.

Reluctantly, I backed away from her. The reality of what I had done shook me to the core and I backed away hastily. What had I done? Had I just kissed Nagato? That wasn't… it shouldn't… I had never felt those feelings so strongly before!

"I-I'm… I'm so sorry," I apologized after what felt like hours.

Yuki stood there, her blank face returning slowly. She looked dazed, like, more dazed than usual. It took me a moment to realize she had dropped her book in the flurry of confusion. Embarrassed, I went for it with my hand outstretched. Picking it up off of the wood floor, I handed it to her in strange silence.

"Here," I said.

She looked at the book for a minute, looked at me, then back at the book. Her expressions were flickering now, I noted nervously. Crap. Did I break her?

She suddenly looked at me, her gaze serious once again and a tone in her stance I could not identify. "Forgive me for the slowness of my response," she began. "I was processing large amounts of foreign data."

It was instinct that I nodded in understanding.

"The events that have transpired are practically inexplicable," she assessed. "However I have a theory that may answer your actions and my own acceptance of them. It is possible that it is by the will of Haruhi Suzumiya that the two of us have sought each other out."

The feeling I felt in my stomach… was it disappointment? Was it really just because of the unpredictable thoughts of Haruhi that Yuki and I kissed?

"So what you're saying is, I wasn't in control of my own actions," I summed up.

Nagato nodded in reply.

Okay, now this I couldn't believe. I would never act the way I had towards anyone unless I felt something genuine towards them. Sure, I was a little clumsy and messed-up sometimes, but I'm dead serious when it comes to these kinds of relationships. I refused to think that it was all because of some girl, granted Haruhi, that caused all of that.

I stepped towards Nagato. Now it was my turn to get serious. My hands clamped down on her shoulders and forced her to look at me. Yuki didn't resist, she just gave her usual blank stare as though nothing had happened.

"Listen to me Nagato… no, Yuki," I said, deciding to use her first name. "I know what I felt, and it wasn't just because someone willed it."

She interjected calmly, "Any other conclusion is illogical. The chances my theory is incorrect are…"

"To hell with logic, to hell with theories!" I snapped. "Yuki, I've never felt the way I felt when I kissed you. Just once, can you listen to something illogical for a change? I think I love you, Yuki. If that's the case, you will break my heart if you just up and turn me down all because of a theoretical conclusion. Please, I'm asking you as a friend to just give this… give us a chance."

Breathless, I awaited her reply. My words had been sincere; I hoped she could tell.

"No," she finally answered. "The only conclusion I can perceive is that we have been manipulated by the godlike will of Haruhi Suzumiya. I apologize, but the emotions you claim to feel are not actually present."

I sat in the opposite corner of the room for the rest of the afternoon. Haruhi, Koizumi, and Mikuru returned late, and Suzumiya seemed more disappointed than normal. The group dispersed after a brief speech from our leader regarding the existence of the supernatural and how we would discover it. I grabbed my coat as the others left, only to turn and find a familiar book resting upon the table.

It was Nagato's copy of Romeo and Juliet. Instinctively, I grabbed the book and went to the door to find Yuki before she left.

"Nagato!" I called. "Nagato, you forgot your-…"

I fell silent as a sliver of paper slipped from the pages of the book. With a hushed snap, it whistled in the drafty room before it met the floor and came to a halt. My eyes observed it for a long time before I finally gathered the courage to pick up the note. With anticipation on my breath, I read it quietly.

"If you mean what you say, and you are certain your feelings are true, I see no complications in exploring these emotions further. The theory that Haruhi Suzumiya is the cause of these feelings still remains a possibility, but I am willing to discuss otherwise.

-Yuki Nagato."


End file.
